Legal · Elec-Mate Ltd
Privacy notice
What personal data Elec-Mate collects, why, who it goes to, how long we keep it, and your rights under UK data protection law.
Last updated 4 October 2026
The short version
- We collect what we need to run Elec-Mate: your account, your work in the app, and how the app is used.
- We don't sell your data, and we don't use your certificates, quotes or clients to train AI.
- Your account data is stored in the UK (London). Some of the services we use are in the EU or the USA, with legal safeguards in place.
- Optional analytics and marketing tracking only run if you say yes.
- You can download your data or delete your account in the app at any time: Settings → Privacy.
1. Who we are
Elec-Mate is run by Elec-Mate Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16416291), registered office 33 Gable Road, Whitehaven, CA28 8HE. We're registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZB935897.
For anything about your data, email info@elec-mate.com. We haven't appointed a Data Protection Officer — we're not required to — so privacy questions come to us directly.
2. Two roles: your data, and your clients' data
Your own data (your account, your learning, your subscription, how you use the app): we decide how it's used, so we're the controller.
Your clients' data (the names, addresses, phone numbers, certificates, photos, signatures and site records you enter about the people and properties you work for): you decide how it's used, so you're the controller and we're your processor. We only use it to provide the service to you, under our Data Processing Agreement. If one of your clients asks about their data, they should contact you — and we'll help you answer.
3. What we collect
Account and profile — name, email, phone number (optional), password (stored only as a secure hash), profile photo, your role (apprentice, electrician, employer, college), business name and details you add.
Professional details — qualifications, ECS card details and Elec-ID verification information, if you choose to add them.
Learning — courses, quiz and mock-exam results, study time, flashcard progress, portfolio evidence, off-the-job hours and CPD records.
Your work in the app — certificates and reports, test results, quotes, invoices, jobs, calendar entries, photos, documents, RAMS, price book, and the client records you create.
Health and safety records — if you record an accident, injury or near miss, that record can include details of a person's injury and first aid. This is special category data (see section 6).
Wellbeing features — if you use the optional mood check-ins, journal, sleep log, safety plan or peer support chat, that information is about your health and is special category data (see section 6).
Payments — your subscription and payment history. Card details are handled by Stripe, Apple or Google; we never see or store your full card number. If you take card payments from your own clients through Elec-Mate, Stripe processes those too.
Device and usage — IP address, device and browser type, app version, pages and features used, crash reports. Precise location only if you turn on a location feature (such as travel times or team check-ins).
Things you choose to connect — if you connect Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or FreshBooks, we access only what's needed for that feature. If you import contacts from your phone, we read only the contacts you pick.
From other sources — if you were referred by a friend or arrived from an ad or link, we record the referral code or campaign so we can credit the referral and see which adverts work.
4. What we use it for, and our lawful basis
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Run your account and provide the app's features | Contract — it's the service you signed up for |
| Take payments and manage your subscription | Contract |
| Send service emails (receipts, password resets, trial and renewal reminders, security alerts) | Contract, and legal obligation where the law requires the notice |
| Keep accounting and tax records | Legal obligation |
| Keep the service secure, prevent fraud and abuse, fix errors | Legitimate interests — keeping Elec-Mate safe and working |
| Understand how features are used so we can improve them, using data that doesn't identify you | Legitimate interests |
| Optional analytics and session insights in your browser | Consent — only if you say yes in the cookie banner |
| Marketing emails, tips and offers | Consent — you can unsubscribe any time |
| Measure our adverts (Meta and Google) | Consent — only if you accept marketing cookies |
| Publish anonymous industry statistics (see section 9) | Legitimate interests |
| Wellbeing features and health and safety records | See section 6 |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we've checked that our interest isn't outweighed by yours, and you have the right to object (section 12).
You don't have to give us any personal data, but we can't create an account without your name and email, and some features won't work without the information they need.
5. AI features
Elec-AI, the board scanner, certificate import, RAMS and quote tools, the AI agents and voice features send the text, photos or documents you give them to an AI provider so it can produce an answer. The providers we use are OpenAI, Anthropic, Google (Gemini and Cloud Vision) and ElevenLabs (voice).
- We send only what the feature needs. If you scan a paper certificate, that can include your client's name and address.
- We don't use your content to train AI models. We use the providers' paid business services, and we've set each of them so it doesn't use what we send to train its own models.
- AI can be wrong. You're responsible for checking anything you sign or send — see our Terms.
6. Special category data
Health and safety records. If you record an accident or injury, you're the controller and we're your processor. You'll normally rely on your employment and health and safety duties (Article 9(2)(b) UK GDPR and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018). We keep these records private to your account and never use them for statistics or AI training.
Wellbeing features. Mood check-ins, journal entries, sleep logs, safety plans and peer support messages are information about your health. These features are optional. We only process this data with your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)), only to provide the features to you, and you can withdraw consent by deleting the entries or your account. Peer support messages are seen by the person you're messaging.
7. Who we share it with
We don't sell personal data. We share it only with the services that run Elec-Mate for us, under contracts that require them to protect it. The full list — what each one does, what data it gets and where it's based — is on our sub-processors page. In summary: hosting and database (Supabase, Vercel), payments (Stripe, Apple, Google, RevenueCat), email and text messages (Brevo, Twilio or Vonage), push notifications, documents (PDFMonkey, Browserless, DocuSign), AI (section 5), maps and addresses (Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, postcodes.io), error monitoring (Sentry), analytics (PostHog, Vercel Analytics) and — only with your consent — advertising measurement (Meta, Google).
We also share data:
- With your employer, if you join their team: your timesheets, the jobs they assign you, and your location when you clock in or update your status.
- With your college or training provider, if you join their course: your attendance, quiz and mock-exam results, marked work, off-the-job hours and portfolio.
- Your employer or college is responsible for how it uses what it sees.
- With services you connect (calendar, email, accounting) — on your instruction.
- When the law requires it, or to protect people's safety, or if Elec-Mate is sold or restructured (the new owner would have to respect this notice).
8. International transfers
Your account and app data is stored in the UK (London). Some providers process data in the EU (which the UK recognises as adequate) or the USA. For US providers we rely on the UK–US data bridge where the provider is certified under it, and otherwise on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses.
9. Anonymous industry statistics
We publish aggregated figures about the UK electrical trade — typical quote values by job type, regional price ranges, how often defects are recorded, exam pass rates. These are counts, medians and percentages across many users. We never publish anything that identifies you, your business, your clients, a property or a job, and we don't publish a figure based on so few records that anyone could be singled out. If you'd rather your activity was left out entirely, email us and we'll exclude it.
10. Google user data (Calendar sync)
If you connect Google Calendar, Elec-Mate's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
- What we access: the
calendar.eventsscope and your email address. We read events from 30 days in the past to 90 days ahead so we can show your commitments and avoid double-booking, and we create, update and delete events for jobs you schedule in Elec-Mate. We don't access, create, delete or share your calendars themselves, or change sharing permissions. - What we do with it: only provide calendar sync to you. We don't use it for advertising, don't sell it, and don't transfer it to others except to provide the feature or where the law requires.
- No human reading: nobody at Elec-Mate reads your calendar data except with your permission for a support issue, where the law requires, or to investigate abuse.
- Not used to train AI: Google Calendar data is never used to develop, improve or train generalised AI or machine-learning models.
- Disconnecting: disconnect any time in Calendar settings, which deletes our stored access tokens. You can also revoke access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
11. How long we keep it
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account and app data | While your account is open |
| After you delete your account | Your account is closed straight away. We keep the data for 30 days so you can change your mind, then permanently erase it |
| Certificates, quotes, invoices and client records you created | Erased with your account — export anything you need first |
| Our own billing and accounting records (your subscription payments) | 6 years, as UK tax law requires |
| Support emails | Up to 3 years after the issue is closed |
| A record that an account was deleted (no name or email) | Kept, so we can show the deletion happened |
| Marketing preferences and unsubscribes | Until you change them; we keep an unsubscribe record so we don't email you again |
| Anonymous, aggregated statistics | Indefinitely — they don't identify anyone |
Database backups are kept for a limited period and overwritten in rotation, so deleted data disappears from them as they cycle.
12. Your rights
You have the right to:
- Access your data — download it any time in Settings → Privacy → Download My Data, or ask us. You get a ZIP file with your records as spreadsheets (CSV) and as JSON, plus links to download your photos and files; we also email you a download link that works for 7 days.
- Correct it — most details are editable in the app.
- Delete it — Settings → Privacy → Delete My Account, or see account deletion.
- Restrict how we use it while a concern is looked into.
- Take it with you (portability) — the download is in standard formats (CSV and JSON).
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
- Withdraw consent at any time — for marketing, cookies or wellbeing features — without affecting what happened before.
- Not be subject to purely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. We don't make any.
Email info@elec-mate.com to use any of these. We'll reply within one month (we may extend by two months for complex requests, and we'll tell you if we do). It's free.
13. Security
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Passwords are hashed, never stored readably. Access to your data is restricted by account-level security rules in our database, staff access is limited to what's needed, and we keep our software patched. Screen recordings used for fixing errors, and for analytics if you allow it, hide all on-screen text, typed input and images.
No system is perfectly secure. If a personal data breach is likely to put your rights at serious risk, we'll tell you without undue delay, and we'll report it to the ICO within 72 hours where the law requires.
14. Apprentices aged 16 and 17
Elec-Mate is for people aged 16 and over. Many apprentices are 16 or 17, so we apply the ICO's Children's Code to them: privacy-protective settings by default, no marketing tracking unless they choose it, and no profiling for advertising. We don't knowingly allow anyone under 16 to use Elec-Mate; if you think we have, tell us and we'll delete the account.
15. People we contact about Elec-Mate
If you work for a college, training provider or electrical business, we may have your business contact details (name, role, work email or phone) from your organisation's public website or public business directories, so we can tell you about Elec-Mate. We rely on legitimate interests. Every email includes a way to opt out, and you can email info@elec-mate.com to ask what we hold or to be removed.
16. Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first at info@elec-mate.com — we'll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you what we're doing about it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, 0303 123 1113.
17. Cookies
We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies. What they are, what they do and how to turn the optional ones off is in our cookie policy.
18. Changes to this notice
If we make a significant change, we'll tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when this notice last changed.